Catechist Jade Hernandez, left, teaches religious education students about Dia de los Muertos last year at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Wellman. Holy Family Parish, which includes churches in Richmond, Riverside and Wellman, recently received a $15,000 Christian Parenting and Caregiving Initiative — Formation for the Next Generation Program grant to invest in new faith formation projects.
By Lindsay Steele
The Catholic Messenger
Three Catholic communities in the Diocese of Davenport are dreaming big after receiving $15,000 grants each from the Christian Parenting and Caregiving Initiative — Formation for the Next Generation Program. The Catholic Extension Society-funded grants help parishes invest in new faith formation projects.
Holy Family Parish-Riverside, which includes churches in Riverside, Richmond and Wellman, is among this year’s grant recipients. “We saw a tremendous opportunity not only to provide families with meaningful resources but also to foster deeper youth and family engagement in our parish,” said Angie Goodwin, the parish’s director of Religious Education. “Serving a culturally diverse community across multiple churches with just one priest, we recognize the unique challenges and blessings of rural parish life.”
The diocese submitted grant applications last summer on behalf of the Riverside parish and St. Patrick Parish-Iowa City and the four-parish cluster of St. Boniface-Farmington, St. Mary-West Point, St. James the Less-St. Paul and St. John the Baptist-Houghton. The diocese could submit up to three applications in 2024, said Jennifer Praet, diocesan director of Stewardship. Four parishes and two parish clusters received grants in the previous application cycle.
Veronica Rayas of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, traveled to Iowa in November to facilitate bilingual listening sessions in each parish/cluster. Rayas, who also led listening sessions in the Davenport Diocese in 2023, guided each parish/cluster’s efforts to identify their most pressing needs.
Parents and caregivers at the Iowa City listening session shared how much they appreciate the beauty of Catholic traditions throughout the liturgical year, especially around Easter and Christmas, said St. Patrick parishioner Abbie Huinker. “Parents/caregivers also stated it can be difficult to pass these traditions on to their children due to time constraints, lack of resources, difficulty traveling to church on days other than Sunday, feelings of being inadequate catechists at home, and from finding more sense of community in secular places.”
Members of the four-parish cluster expressed a desire to deepen their unity and to empower people to grow in faith and spread the Good News to their children, Deacon Mike Linnenbrink said.
At the Riverside session, “we heard a strong desire for more engaging and flexible faith opportunities — ones that fit into busy family lives while still fostering a strong sense of belonging in our parish,” Goodwin said.
Each parish/cluster used the information from the listening session to develop programming proposals. Just before Christmas, the three Catholic communities received word that each would receive $15,000 — the maximum amount — to implement their dream plans. “What a gift,” Huinker said. The Catholic communities received funding around the first of the year. Each parish/cluster must report metrics and spending data to Catholic Extension on a monthly basis, Praet said. The participating parishes chose timelines dependent on what would work best in their communities, ranging from 1-2.25 years.
The Iowa City parish will use the grant money to purchase family “take-home crates” with items to help parents and caregivers share the faith at home, Huinker said. The parish is working with Catholic Family Crate to develop custom packages to distribute during Lent/Easter, summer and Advent/Christmas.
The four-parish cluster will host a series of eight community-building events centered on the theme, “Who Do You Say I Am?” The events will take place over the next two years, Deacon Linnenbrink said.
The Riverside parish plans to update textbooks and catechetical resources “to better engage children and support parents in their role as the primary educators of faith,” Goodwin said. Additionally, the parish will offer a quarterly intergenerational family faith program. “This grant allows us to create faith-filled experiences that bring families together, empower parents in their role as faith educators, and offer dynamic opportunities for our youth to encounter Christ in new and inspiring ways,” she said.
(Learn how last year’s grant recipients are living out their dream projects in an upcoming edition of The Catholic Messenger.)
